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In the spirit of the new school year and the imminent college football season…

First we offer the top 10 party schools in America. Looking at the top 5, might there be a link between hedonism, the South and football?

Speaking of the dirty South, this future Clemson grad wants us to know that she has “the Iraq’s” education on her mind, er, something like that…

Moving back to our bread & butter, in a tragedy of Odin-esque proportions, Oregon plans to take Phil Knight’s $100M largesse and use it to build a new on-campus arena. Sadly, McArthur Court will be tossed into the dustbin of great historical arenas. Why doesn’t UO end the charade and just call themselves the Oregon Nikes from now on?

Richard Jefferson donated $3.5M to his alma mater Arizona for their new practice facility. But he’s still only the third best UA alum in the NBA, according to fellow Cat Agent Zero.

Mike DeCourcey at TSN picks five teams from which he believes a 2008 champion will emerge – Georgetown, UNC, Kansas, UCLA and Memphis.

All kinds of knee problems – Syracuse guard Andy Rautins blew out his left knee during the Tournament of the Americas while playing for Team Canada – the Cuse’s leading returning three-point shooter will miss the entire 2007-08 season. Duke’s David McClure (6-8 weeks) and Bama’s Ronald Steele (ditto) also had less serious knee surgeries last week – both are expected to be 100% by the season.

Illinois guard Jamar Smith will miss the season due to his DUI arrest in February. He will be eligible to return to the team in the 2008-09 season. Oh, and Jeff Goodman reminds us that Bruce Weber still can’t recruit.

From the rumor mill –

Word is pickup basketball at UCLA got heated Monday when Golden State star point guard Baron Davis engaged in some trash-talking with heralded Southern Cal freshman point guard O.J. Mayo. Davis got upset with Mayo after he didn’t respect one of Davis’ calls. Word is Davis, a native of Los Angeles, told Mayo that he doesn’t know who he is other than the fact that he wasn’t from Los Angeles and he also needed to respect a veteran’s call. Word is Mayo more than held his own in the games. (h/t to Bruin Report Online)

Former ECU head coach Ricky Stokes has been paid $250,000 to not take the administrative job originally offered him after his demotion.

In a sad and bizarre end to what was probably a tortured life, former one-and-done Seton Hall star Eddie Griffin died of an apparent suicide last week when he drove his car into a moving train. RIP Eddie.

Finally, from the opposite end of the spectrum, Butch van Breda Kolff, former Princeton coach and hoops purist, died at 84 last week. As head coach, he led Bill Bradley’s Princeton Tigers to the 1965 Final Four, its only appearance. RIP Butch.